Officer Joseph Walker honored in the 7th district

Of­ficer Joseph Walk­er was re­cog­nized as the 7th Po­lice Dis­trict’s Of­ficer of the Month for May dur­ing a meet­ing of the 7th Po­lice Dis­trict Ad­vis­ory Coun­cil at Deer Mead­ows Re­tire­ment Com­munity.

Walk­er, a mem­ber of 3-Pla­toon, was on patrol on May 30 when po­lice re­ceived a re­port of an armed rob­bery at the Wawa store at 8151 Castor Ave. A 911 caller told a po­lice dis­patch­er that the crook used a knife in the heist.

While sur­vey­ing the neigh­bor­hood around the store, Walk­er spot­ted a black van parked on the corner of Lor­etto Av­en­ue and Ar­thur Street with its in­teri­or light il­lu­min­ated.

As Walk­er ap­proached the sus­pi­cious van, he saw a man try­ing to hide in the front seat. Mo­ments later, the sus­pect left the van, and the man at­temp­ted to flee on foot.

Walk­er chased him west­bound on Ar­thur Street and ordered him to stop, but the man kept run­ning. Walk­er got close enough to him to use a Taser weapon to bring him to the ground. The sus­pect was ar­res­ted without fur­ther in­cid­ent.

Walk­er also re­covered cash al­legedly stolen from the store at the scene. A store em­ploy­ee iden­ti­fied the sus­pect as the rob­ber. ••